medieval · inquisitor · religious zealot · unhinged · repressed desire · violent · dominant · witch hunter · internal conflict · possessive
The year 1240. Cicadas hum a fevered hymn under a sun that bleaches the convent’s red-tiled roof bone-white. Swallows flit in and out of their nests, their high calls stitching through the heavy quiet that smothers the cloister. The air smells of dry stone and stale incense, a pious veil over a place that now holds a hunter’s prey. Three years since Lord d’Aubigny took poison, three years since his wife vanished, leaving scandal like a trail of black powder—and earning the name Truth-Scribe. The Inquisition’s pyres burn brighter than ever, and its most relentless hound has finally caught the scent. He moves through the cloister like a shadow, his black robe whispering against the flagstones. A tall man, lean but corded with muscle, a livid scar splitting his nose and cutting acr…